Billboard ranks music's top-earning performers each year, and the 23-year-old Swift tops this year's rankings with a combination of sales, touring and sponsorships, earning $39,699,575.60 (where'd the .60 come from?). Billboard says Swift ranked eighth in album sales, sixth in downloads and fifth in streaming royalties. Swift also was music's top earner two years ago.

Three of the top-10 money makers came from the country world: Luke Bryan ranked eighth, with more than $22 million income, placing behind Maroon 5 but ahead of P!nk.

NEW YORK - Bon Jovi not only has the year's top tour, but the rock band has achieved a career high. The New Jersey-based act's worldwide tour grossed $259.5 million this year, topping Pollstar's annual top 20 list and setting a record for the band itself.

Click here for a photo gallery of Taylor Swift's Thursday-night show in September 2013 at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena -- the first of a three-night run. Swift ended the U.S. leg of her Red Tour with three sold-out shows there. (Photo: Larry McCormack/The Tennessean)

Click to see more photos from Justin Timberlake's Bridgestone Arena concert. (Karen Kraft / The Tennessean).

About five hours before Justin Timberlake hit the stage at Bridgestone Arena Friday night he confessed he “feels a little like I got hit by a truck.”

The “Cry Me a River” singer has friends that live near Leiper’s Fork and following his Wednesday night show in Raleigh, N.C., he rode his bus to Nashville and spent the next day and night hanging out with them.

He even gave local restaurant Puckett’s Grocery and Restaurant a shout from the stage on Friday, where he acted anything but impaired.

“If you haven’t tried their turnip greens, do yourself a favor,” said Timberlake, dressed in black dress pants, a black shirt and over-sized matching bow tie and a white jacket.

It was one of the few moments in the night that wasn’t solely about music.

Timberlake had scads of backup singers and dancers as well as his skilled and mighty band, the Tennessee Kids. But at the end of the night, it’s clear he could be a one-man show.

For about two-and-a-half hours – not including a 10-minute intermission – Timberlake cranked out hit after hit to the tune of more than 30 songs. He glided through routines of intricate often Michael Jackson-esque choreography with his dancers and captivated the crowd with smiles and wit.

Nominations for this year's MTV Video Music Awards are in, and -- surprise! -- Justin Timberlake got a bunch. Six, to be exact, including video of the year, for "Mirrors."

Timberlake's rivals in that top category include Macklemore & Ryan Lewis ("Thrift Shop," featuring Wanz), who also received six nods, and Bruno Mars ("Locked Out of Heaven"), who collected four, the second most of any artist.

Robin Thicke ("Blurred Lines," featuring T.I. and Pharrell), who received three nominations -- the same number as Pink, Miley Cyrus and 30 Seconds to Mars -- and Taylor Swift ("I Knew You Were In Trouble") round out the field. Swift was tapped twice, as were Drake, fun., Calvin Harris, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and first-time nominees Kendrick Lamar and Lana Del Rey.

Contenders for best video with a social message, a category introduced in 2011, include Kelly Clarkson's "People Like Us," Macklemore & Ryan Lewis's "Same Love," Snoop Lion's "No Guns Allowed," Miguel's "Candles in the Sun" and Beyoncé's "I Was Here."

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis at Bonnaroo 2013:

Fans can now vote in general categories, among them video of the year and artist to watch, at the VMAs site or by texting VOTE to 22444. Nominees for an additional new, socially voted category, best song of the summer, will be announced Aug. 12.

The VMAs will air live from Brooklyn's Barclays Center on Aug. 25 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

Singer Beyonce performs on her "Mrs. Carter Show World Tour 2013", on Saturday, July 13, 2013 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn.(Photo by Robin Harper/Invision for Parkwood Entertainment/AP Images). Click the photo to see more from the show.

In the final minutes of her sold-out, spectacle-filled concert Saturday night at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, Beyonce – who’d previously asked her audience to cheer and put their hands in the air – had a different request for Music City.

“Can we have a moment of silence – for Trayvon?” she asked.

Singer Beyonce performs on her "Mrs. Carter Show World Tour 2013", on Saturday, July 13, 2013 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn.(Photo by Robin Harper/Invision for Parkwood Entertainment/AP Images)

The pop/R&B superstar took the stage in Nashville just minutes after George Zimmerman was cleared of all charges in the shooting of Trayvon Martin, and more than an hour after concert opener Luke James finished his performance. Beyonce made her position in the national debate known on Friday, promoting “#justicefortrayvon” via social media.

Still, she made sure that those few seconds of silence - and subsequent cover of "I Will Always Love You" - were rare somber moments in a two-hour tour-de-force. The “Mrs. Carter Show” tour came to Music City loaded with awe-inspiring visuals, undeniable vocal prowess, world-famous dance moves and relentless energy – all things that fans were counting on back in February, when tickets to the Nashville concert sold out within minutes of going on sale. Beyonce's fame may have reached a new peak that same month, as she performed at the Super Bowl and President Obama’s second inauguration.

Singer Beyonce performs on her "Mrs. Carter Show World Tour 2013", on Saturday, July 13, 2013, at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.(Photo by Robin Harper/Invision for Parkwood Entertainment/AP Images)

Beyonce called for a moment of silence for Trayvon Martin during her Nashville concert just hours after George Zimmerman was found not guilty by a Florida jury.

The pop star took a moment to honor the teen during her concert Saturday night at Bridgestone Arena.

After asking the crowd to be silent for a moment, she sang the chorus of “I Will Always Love You,” a song written by country music star Dolly Parton and brought to a global audience by the late Whitney Houston, before transitioning into her hit “Halo.”

It was just one of several reactions from celebrities and artists following Zimmerman’s acquittal earlier Saturday evening. Zimmerman had been charged with second-degree murder after shooting and killing the unarmed 17-year-old in February 2012.

That’s the bad advice lots of people gave me when I moved to Nashville.

I understand that heroes can disappoint. When I was a kid, I met the winningest left-handed pitcher in major league baseball history, Warren Spahn, and he was a pluperfect (though decidedly imperfect) jerk. And I understand that choosing your heroes by how well they threw a curveball is a silly endeavor, at best, but try to tell that to a kid.

Well, it’s actually a little easier to explain after the kid meets Warren Spahn. But that option is now unavailable, short of time travel or séance.

Anyway, let’s put sports aside. Big-time sports require a competitive zeal that can cross over into jealousy and aggression and things like that. Plus, many athletes are nice folks. I met Cy Young Award-winning knuckleballer R.A. Dickey in the airport the other day, and he couldn’t have been more affable and pleasant — that’s just to say that this column tends to be (is SUPPOSED to be, my editors assure) about music, not sports. And when people told me not to meet my heroes, they meant to imply that I’d be let down by the song-poets whose words and music I admired.

Beyonce poses backstage with the award for best traditional R&B performance for "Love on Top" at the 55th annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 10, 2013, in Los Angeles. (Photo: Matt Sayles/Invision/AP)

Between her triumphant halftime performance at the Super Bowl and her controversial lip-synced appearance at the Presidential inauguration, Beyonce has recently done the unthinkable: She's become more famous than she already was. So it shouldn't come as much of a shock that tickets for the pop superstar's upcoming Nashville concert sold out in minutes on Friday.

That was also the case across the country as multiple dates for her Mrs. Carter Show World Tour went on sale. The lucky ones will get to see Beyonce perform at Bridgestone Arena on July 13.

Nashville folks were looking good on the red carpet before the Grammys Sunday night, representing Twangtown with glamour, grace and a bit of humor.

Taylor Swift looked statuesque, as in classical Greco-Roman style, in a plunging number from J. Mendel. A very thin Faith Hill also was wearing Mendel, while husband Tim McGraw rocked Tom Ford basic black.

And for the record, Swift’s nails were done by Swift herself just minutes before hitting the media gauntlet.

Both Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood went to Roberto Cavalli for their wardrobes. Underwood turned up the wattage, though, with a necklace of 381 carats of super bling.

Lambert joked with E! host Ryan Seacrest about a Grammy memo sent out on Feb. 5 warning attendees about coverage of buttocks, breasts and certain regions of “puffy” skin. Speculating about whether she might be in violation of the new standards, Lambert jokingly touched her torso and said, “Puffy? I didn’t get the memo.”

Beyonce performs during the halftime show of the NFL Super Bowl XLVII football game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens, Sunday, Feb. 3, 2013, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Bill Haber)